Renovating a 1930's semi

[PantsandBoots]

Hi everyone,

Would be grateful for your thoughts on what jobs need doing when renovating a solid 1930's semi.
Overall, it is in good condition but hasnt really been updated for the last 20 years.

My list:
Damp proof course
Partial rewire
Clear gutters
Insulate loft and board up
Refurb kitchen and bathroom
Decorate
New flooring throughout

Anything else?

Thanks

Can anyone recommend good soundproofing solutions to drown out 2 teenagers?

dunsterhouse.co.uk/premiumplus-modetro-grande-w8-5m-x-d3-5m?gclid=CjwKCAjw5p_8BRBUEiwAPpJO6_8hhOcN0WmrFhPa9QcB21-athATKB2z2lrtJZHQFO7ahO4maSd2hxoC0uAQAvD_BwE

ive spent 25 years in a 1937 trad semi

did the kitchen first, then bathroom and boiler

then sorted guttering

roof

drive

back garden overhaul

double glazing in two parts but same chap

then redecorated each room

wooden flooring

front door

electrics

then moved house

@ivykaty44 - haha I like your thinking!
You moved just after the full renovation was completed

@JacobReesMogadishu - do you mind if I ask the ballpark figure to do the roof and how long it took?

@ PantsandBoots it was my home first & formist, where we lived & grew. There was no rush to decorate until the time was right. Now we have another home - modern and nothing needs doing but it’s a different time of our lives 😊 no need to rush though, take your time

[quote PantsandBoots]@ivykaty44 - haha I like your thinking!
You moved just after the full renovation was completed

@JacobReesMogadishu - do you mind if I ask the ballpark figure to do the roof and how long it took?[/quote]
We must have had the roof done 5 years ago. I think it cost us under 2k. Our next door neighbours had theirs done at the same time, so it was done as a job lot and we split the cost. The roofers were friends with the neighbour I think so possibly good rates. It was done in less than a week.

@PantsandBoots I've just had a rewiring quote and thought it might be useful to you.

Our extension will add about the same again in floor area on the side and back to our existing classic 30s semi, and remodelling of one main room from a dining room to kitchen and cutting the box bedroom down into a shower room, adding power and light into loft. The electrics category for that is about £12,000 Inc vat - but it also includes a spur for an electric vehicle charging point, a circuit for our garden office, outdoor lighting, and power to things like the boiler, UFH manifold.

The electrician found that our existing wiring was sheathed in rubber, which had perished. The additional cost to rewire the bathroom lights and extractor, two main bedrooms sockets and lights, hall sockets and lights, living room sockets and lights, is coming in at £3,200 Inc vat.

The benefit of doing this to us will be in (a) getting all the pain over with (b) if we didn't, the old-wired part of the house couldn't be put on the same consumer unit and signed off, so any surveyor/buyer would see the secondary old fashioned fuse board next to the new one and say argh.

@TyneFilth - thank you for the info, its very kind of you .
The first figure gave me a fright!

I hope that our work will be more along the lines of the lower figure so really useful to compare. Thanks

I know it makes sense to do the roof first but as its winter now, I am wondering whether to just renew the insulation and board up for now and then tackle the job in the spring as the roof looks okay.

Thoughts?

Is it leaking that you know of? Have you been up to the loft to inspect the felt etc? I know my roof needs replacing but I'm not going to do that until next spring now as it's fine for another year I expect.

It is not leaking that I know of and the survey only mentioned the flashings as needing replacing...

If it hasn't been updated in 20 years then that means 2000. I doubt it needs re-wiring or re-plumbing if those things were done then. Properties don't need that kind of major refurbishment every 20 years.

@PantsandBoots

It is not leaking that I know of and the survey only mentioned the flashings as needing replacing...

Surveys often say that - the chimney flashing? I'd say you'd be fine to leave it until spring

This thread is giving me chills!
I've a 1930's which needs EVERYTHING doing, really wish we'd brought something it's less work.

Ours is a 3 bed terrace with kitchen and loft extension and a full rewire quote was £7.5k (not including kitchen as is ok)

Luckily my husband is in the building trade but getting him to actually do the actual work is the issue.

We need
New mains water pipe / will need to dig up driveway, our water pressure is shit.
Full rewire
New plumbing - husband can do this and has already replaced boiler
New skirtings, internal doors and architrave
Re plaster of the majority of walls & ceilings
New bannisters (currently have the old boxed in style)
Possible chimney breast removal as we have 2
Re configuration of loft conversion as it's currently 2 small bedrooms and a shower room
We've stripped all wall paper (around 5 layers of the bloody stuff) I feel depressed typing this out!

I feel like Tom Hanks in the film the money pit 😩

@narcdad45 - money pit is a great description!
Sooo lucky to have a husband in the building trade, thats going to save you loads!!!

I renovated a 1930's 3-bed semi. It had never been maintained though.
All good advice here. Approach it that you have bought the shell of a building on a plot of land, especially if it was not maintained.
I hacked off and replastered, in hindsight I should have drylined the external walls with insulated plasterboard.. Don't re-skim walls, if they are bad, get them back to the brickwork.
My floorboards were low quality, so they were replaced with chipboard. Re-wire obviously. Plan for external lights and power etc, cameras or security. Electric for a shed/garage. A sink in the garage with hot water is a great addition. New central heating.
My roof was not great, the tiles were rotten in places, so they were replaced with modern small concrete ones. These are heavier than clay, but looked fantastic.
Also, plastic facias and soffets, you may/will need venting. Replace the guttering, it's not expensive, and is a necessity if you go for the facias.
I had suspended floors, so changed the kitchen to solid. I should have done the hallway floor also to solid.
Also pulled all the ceilings down and replaced with plaster board.
I remember walking in there one night, standing in the hallway, and looking up, and seeing the stars!
It's best to go for it if the house is not occupied.

Wow - thanks for the tips!

Surveys are full of ‘may need’ ‘as a precaution’. Get specialists round to assess the actual age and condition of your electrics, boiler, plumbing, roof. Most roofs do fine with patching up. When we moved into this place we lived with it for some years while we saved up, and during that time it was easy to see what was urgent, what could wait. The electrics were ancient so were done before decorating. The boiler was >30 years old and 40 years old when we finally replaced it (in doing so the man sorted out all the plumbing bodges). Older houses are money pits but you can normally stagger the jobs unless they are falling down.

@IheartNiles

Surveys are full of ‘may need’ ‘as a precaution’. Get specialists round to assess the actual age and condition of your electrics, boiler, plumbing, roof. Most roofs do fine with patching up. When we moved into this place we lived with it for some years while we saved up, and during that time it was easy to see what was urgent, what could wait. The electrics were ancient so were done before decorating. The boiler was >30 years old and 40 years old when we finally replaced it (in doing so the man sorted out all the plumbing bodges). Older houses are money pits but you can normally stagger the jobs unless they are falling down.

That's made me feel a bit better! Been on our house almost a year and the floral arrangements walls, burnt orange swirl carpets are beginning to send me over the edge! So much major work to do and can't start any decorating until the main works done.

Seeing all the lockdown makeovers hasn't helped either 🤣

It’s been hard in lockdown @narcdad45 as everyone has been staring at all the things that normally are ignored because life is busy. Plus all those bloody perfect houses on shows. Get yer main works done, knickers before fur coat.

Check the soil pipe. At an old house there was a bad drains smell every now and again for a short while. Never thought much of it but talking to our buyers a few years back when they extended it was because the soil pipe was the original one and over time had cracked away so the sewage was leaking into the ground (not envy)